Festival Planner

What it is

Olly is helping a pretend town run its summer festival. Each plan comes with rules in plain words: "the music stage can't be next to the reading tent", "the first-aid tent must be by the gate", "the juggler arrives at 2:00, so book them at 2:00 or later", "spend $60 or less". Children drag stalls onto field plots, put acts into stage time slots and choose extras to book, then check the plan. Any plan that keeps every rule works, and a rules checklist shows which rule broke. Younger planners start with a row of plots and one rule; festival directors juggle a grid, a schedule and a budget in one plan. Names, places and prices are made up.

What children learn

Practices planning with several constraints at once: reading rule language (next to, before, right after, at or later, no more than), checking a plan against every rule, using one rule to narrow the options for another, and staying within a budget while meeting minimum needs. Each level is checked by a solver so at least one plan works and the rules really matter.

What it teaches

• Plan with constraints
• Plan within a budget